Rish's Reviews
If our website had fans, I would ask them which reviews they prefer, the short ones like Shadow of the Vampire and Return of the Fly or the mother-long ones like Bride of Frankenstein and Rose Red?
I certainly prefer to write the long, sprawling epics that couldn't suck more if they had a straw handy, but hey, it's lots easier to scribble something useless down like my review of The House on Haunted Hill. Well, it's something to think about as we begin the saga known as, My Review of V.
I hadn't seen this in fifteen or so years. I didn't pick it up again because I was afraid it wouldn't hold up after so long. Every once in a while, you'll see or hear something you liked when you were younger, and realize it's not as great as you remembered it, or that it's no good at all. And I LOVED V. I saw it when I was a little boy--my parents and I watched it together and my dad even let me stay up till ten to see how it ended–and I was worried that it would be yet another pleasure from my childhood ruined by the passage of time.
V tells the story of our first visit from an alien race. The Visitors arrive in giant saucer-shaped crafts that hover over the world's large cities, causing quite a stir. But when they are revealed, Earth sighs in relief to find that not only have these extraterrestrials come in peace, but they look just like us! They are recognizable by their sensitivity to sunlight, their odd reverberating voices, and of course, their bright red uniforms. They've come to ask for seemingly useless materials to help save their dying world, and in return, they bring us technology, science (including a cure for Cancer), and wonder. But all is not as it seems. First discovered by newsman Mike Donovan, the Visitors are not what they seem . . . in more ways than one. They're here for more than just good-neighbourness, and these slimy bastards want more than to borrow a cup of sugar. As their influence and power increases, a resistance movement is created, to reveal to the world their true motives before it is too late.
Within the first five minutes, I was impressed by the breadth and scope of the film. It had a high budget, a good score, a nice look to the film; unusual for a TV movie. The first twenty-five minutes were brilliant, and the quality doesn't drop much throughout. The cast is huge--made up of Beastmaster Marc Singer, and a tremendous amount of unknowns like Faye Grant and Michael Durrell. It made a star out of hottie villain Jane Badler, but only on this show, and future familiar faces like "Growing Pains"'s Joanna Kerns and, most recognizably, Elm Street's Robert Englund. Folks like Richard Herd and Bonnie Bartlett showed up in other shows, but the majority really found V to be their only claim to fame.
Something I never got when I was a kid (it frankly went over my head) was the now-obvious parallels between the Visitors and the Third Reich. Throughout the film are a ton of interesting Nazi/Hitler connections (such as the storyline where the scientists are persecuted, and rounded up to be put in camps), that made the film all the more powerful to me now.
The scene where Diana eats a guinea pig was a BIG deal as a kid (the most infamous shot in the mini-series) and was the only ludicrous shot today. The special effects were primitive and limited (although the ship shots still looked good), yes, but not so much so that it interfered with the story. The acting and script were what mattered anyway. And the script is great, filled with twists, turns, revelations, and surprises in who lives and who dies. Both parts had extraordinarily cool endings, and are surprisingly moving. I have to admit that I cried during the letter-reading part, something I never did as a kid.
I was nervous about picking up V again, but I needn't have worried. The film was as good or BETTER than I remembered it. It was a powerful story, a great film, both in my childhood (I was so V obsessed that I literally had my mother convert my pair of red pajamas into a Visitors uniform) and now as an over-the-hill adult. I heartily recommend it.
Note: I was so impressed by the movie that I decided to watch it again with the director's commentary, and was blown away by it. Not only was it insightful, revelatory, and interesting, but Kenneth Johnson actually provides his email address at the end of it, in case someone has a question. Wow.